


Reading PJO and HoO with the Olympians of Past and Heroes of Old 'n' New: The Lightning Thief

by Pick_One



Series: Reading PJO and HoO with the Past Olympians and Heroes of Old 'n' New [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:48:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27006841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pick_One/pseuds/Pick_One
Summary: The title says it all! but just so you know, this is about when Percy and company are sent a 1000 years back to read the books with the past gods and the past demigods.DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own PJO and HoO. The wonderful and brilliant Rick Riordan does. None of these characters are mine (except the "Tee" girl who appears shortly in the first chapter only).
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso/Leo Valdez, Clarisse La Rue/Chris Rodriguez, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Juniper/Grover Underwood, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: Reading PJO and HoO with the Past Olympians and Heroes of Old 'n' New [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1971064
Comments: 22
Kudos: 94





	1. The Arrival

Exactly a 1000 years before Gaea was defeated, The Olympians: Hestia, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ares, Athena, Demeter & Dionysus were having a very important meeting. The Three Fates themselves had called them all. Obviously everyone realised it had to be something serious since The Three Fates had never invited them to have a nice little chat over tea, before.  
Suddenly there was a massive BOOM and blinding white light exploded in front of the Olympians. They all had to cover their eyes. When the light died down they saw Hercules, Theseus, Orion, Perseus, Jason1 (A/N: we'll call him Jason1 and the other Jason will be just Jason) and another strange.....girl. She sure looked like a girl, but there was some strange aura around her. The way her waist-length black hair flowed, even though there was no wind in the throne room, the way her purple-green eyes seemed to be, quite literally, swimming with secrets, as if she had seen everything. All the Olympians were just staring at her, ignoring the other demigods and momentarily forgetting how they had arrived. She stood as still as a statue if she hadn't been breathing they would have thought that she was a statue.  
Finally Athena broke The Silence by asking the girl, "who are you?"  
The girl just look at Athena like she knew all the things about her; past, present future you name it.  
The demigods were watching the situation baffled. Hercules stepped forward in awe and raised his hand like he was going to touch the silky folds of black hair of the girl, as if she was a mere statue (he probably did think that, if you don't know he has no brain ). When his hand was inches away the girl said in a monotone, "Don't. I bite."  
Shocked, Hercules hurriedly snatched his hand away. And then there was silence. Again.  
Finally Zeus got his bearings back and demanded, almost forcefully, " who are you and how dare you interrupt this grand meeting of Olympus called by the Three fates themselves!"  
The girl turn towards Zeus, "call me Tee. I have been sent by the three fates to bring some of the demigods of the present and some of the demigods of the future. The future ones will be arriving soon.  
"But why?" asked Athena.  
"To show you all the consequences of the choices you will make in the future. Take heed from the advice that you will be given and the future might not be as bad. And a few hundred lives might be saved. In other words you will be reading books. About a boy called Percy Jackson the most powerful demigod to ever live & his friends. And the future from their point of view," replied Tee.  
The reactions of all the Olympians and the demigods were different.  
Zeus, Poseidon and Hades were in disbelief that they had been asked to leave their domains(Poseidon and Hades) and their very important work in order to read books!!!!  
Athena was merely curious about the future and the future demigods. She was also excited to read the books.  
Hera was in disdain because Hercules and Perseus were there too.  
Apollo and Hermes were wondering if their children were among the future demigods.  
Ares, Hephaestus and Aphrodite were not paying attention anyway.  
Demeter was for once not thinking about cereal and Dionysus was too drunk to know what was happening anyway.  
Only Hestia wasn't shocked. She had known since quite some time that her siblings' foolish choices would have major consequences.  
The demigods however were thinking about something else that Tee had said.  
Hercules was thinking that it was not possible there could be another demigod more powerful than him.  
Perseus was smirking as he saw Hercules because he knew exactly what he was thinking.  
Theseus and Orion we are wondering who this demigod was.  
Jason1, however, was wondering why he was called here since he was a legacy of Hermes and not a proper demigod.  
Finally Hercules got agitated enough to voice the thoughts that had been circling his head, "no one can be more powerful than I am!"  
The Olympians all turned to him turn to him and Tee just smiled, "oh you wait Hercules. The demigod about to show will stun you all."  
This left all the Olympians and the demigods wondering.  
Finally there was a flash of light and 9 teenagers and a satyr stumbled out of it. They they looked comfortable as if they had known this was coming (which they had)  
"These demigods have been told about this so no need of explanations. The demigods need to Just introduce themselves by their name and their godly parents. The future and the present both. I will be going now. If you harm any of the demigods you will suffer something worse than fading away. You will get the books after the introduction. More people will come from the future as the books proceed. Goodbye. Hope you learn something," Tee said and vanished.  
The Olympians then turn to the future demigods. "Well I suppose introductions are in order," declared Hades.  
"May I remind you brother that who is in charge here?" demanded Zeus.  
The demigods paid him no attention and proceeded to introduce themselves.  
A really attractive girl with blond, curly hair and striking grey eyes stepped forward. Most of Olympians thought she was Aphrodite's kid and were shocked when she said, "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."  
Athena smiled and Aphrodite asked her, "Were you perhaps blessed by me in the future?"  
Annabeth shrugged and said nothing, they weren't allowed to say anything about the future.  
Next a Latino guy with curly black hair introduced himself, "Leo Valdez, Son of Hephaestus."  
Then another boy came forward. He had the body of a sumo wrestler and a cute babyish face. He looked like a Chinese. The Olympians all wondered whose son he was.  
"I'm Frank Zhang, The Son of Mars."  
Ares' form flickered from Greek to Roman and back again.  
"Wait! What's a Roman doing with these Greeks!" Zeus exclaimed and grabbed his masterbolt, ready to perish Frank. And then he thought of the warning Tee had given and sat down again.  
"The future's quite messed up. You'll see," replied a pale black-haired kid, with a stygian sword, wearing a black jacket, "Nico di Angelo, Son of Hades."  
As was expected, Hades didn't acknowledge his son a bit. Nico's shoulders slumped. Then he remembered that Mars hadn't reacted to Frank too and neither had Hephaestus to his Leo. This cheered him up slightly.  
Next came a beautiful dark-skinned girl, with curly, cinnamon-toast–colored hair, "Hazel Levesque, Daughter of Pluto."  
The same thing that had happened to Ares, happened to Hades. He didn't acknowledge Hazel either, though he was curious about how his Roman daughter and Greek son got along.  
Then an extremely pretty Cherokee girl introduced herself, "Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite." Aphrodite waved at her daughter and Piper waved back.  
After Piper, another black-haired, blue-eyed girl wearing punk style clothes spoke-up, "Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus, Lieutenant of Artemis." Hera's nostrils flared and she glared at Zeus, but kept quiet, which was very unlike Hera. Perseus smiled at his half-sister while Hercules didn't pay any attention to anything.  
Artemis who had previously sensed a hunter among the group said, "My Lieutenant? Why? What happened to Zoe?" At this all the demigods turned sad, but said nothing. And then Artemis understood and silent tears started running down her face.  
After some time, she quietened and the satyr stepped up, "Grover Underwood, satyr."  
Then came forward a really handsome, blond boy with a Gladius,"Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter."  
That's when Hera lost it. She stood up and glared daggers at Zeus. If looks could kill, well Zeus would be worse than dead. "You cheated on me in BOTH your forms, with the same woman and had TWO kids!!??  
Zeus cowered in fright, "Th-thats in the future. I don't know why I did that!"  
Then, to distract everyone from the fight, Jason1 said, "Hey, you've got my name!"  
Jason smiled, "Yeah, Hera herself named me after you since you were her favourite and I'm----well you'll find out."  
Finally, Hera calmed down, and a boy with wind-blown, messy, raven black hair stepped forward. And everyone could tell that he was no ordinary demigod. He was really handsome. He had the good looks of a Roman god. He was also muscular and slightly tanned. But the best part were his unique, ocean-deep, sea-green eyes. He had an aura of such power around him, that he could be easily be passed off as a god. He certainly had the looks.  
Aphrodite eyed him interestedly, while Artemis turned disgustedly away. She knew what kind of a boy he might be, taking in his appearance. Those cocky, stuck-up boys who thought they were everything and were too absorbed in their ownselves to think of others.  
"Perseus 'Percy' Jackson," he said in a slightly deep voice, "Son of Poseidon."  
Zeus looked shocked. Even he had noticed the power around this boy and he seemed more powerful than half the Olympian council. Certainly more than Hercules. So he had decided that this boy might be his and was bracing himself for another outburst of Hera.  
Poseidon smiled at his son and he already started liking him. Not because of the power, no. But there seemed to be a strong connection between the two.  
"And you have my name, even though our dad's are different. Cool!" Perseus said  
Percy smiled, "Yeah."  
"Oh so it's you Tee was talking about, the most powerful demigod in history, " Theseus said to his half-brother.  
Hercules seethed. No one was more powerful than him, "Huh. You don't look like much. I can't believe I was called here to read about a puny demigod."  
Percy sighed, "Neither can I."  
"WHAT?" Artemis thought, "No I must've heard wrong, or he might've meant something else. Surely a male like him won't be disappointed at an opportunity to boast about himself. But I guess I'm judging him a bit too harshly. I should wait and see."  
Then the past demigods introduced themselves and although the future ones looked at Hercules angrily and Orion sadly, they didn't do anything since they had been warned not t be hostile.  
Just then there was another flash of light, a bit less bright this time and a book fell on Jason's head.  
"Wow, dude. First the bricks, now books. These things sure have a thing for you." said Leo and all the future demigods laughed while the past demigods and gods looked confused.  
Athena picked the book up, "Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Right, who would like to read first?"  
No one responded, the demigods cz they had dyslexia and the gods because, well, what was Athena for?  
Athena sighed, "Well, let's get this over with."  
"I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher"  
A/N: More characters would be added as the story proceeds


	2. Lets Vaporise Our Teachers Part 1

A/N: The stuff written in double brackets ((like this)) is from the "Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief" Book. I'm starting to post these chapters on Fanfiction net too so there I bold the writing from the original book, but as there is no option to bold it here....let's start!

(("I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher"))   
"Cool," said Hermes. Everyone looked at him.  
"What? It's not every day that someone vaporizes their pre-algebra teacher."  
Athena scowled and read on.  
(("Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood."))  
"None of us did," Thalia said darkly. This made the gods wonder. surely it couldn't be that bad. Yeah, there was the occasional quest where the occasional demigod died for them, but that was honorable! And sure, most demigods don't even reach their early thirties before a monster finishes them off, but death is imminent, of course.  
(("If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life."))  
"Wow, Percy actually gave good advice! The world sure is going to dogs," snickered Jason.  
"Hey, I always give good advice!" said Percy.  
"Yeah right," Annabeth rolled her eyes jokingly and smacked Percy's arm. Percy smiled at her and Athena's eyes narrowed. She didn't like her daughter's closeness with Old Barnacle Beard's son. It was almost as if they were....no, the idea was too horrible to even consider.  
"Yeah, remember that time when we were fighting, ummm, you-know-who and Reyna said, 'Legion, cuneum formate! Advance!' and when you came there, you were like, 'Greeks! Let's, um, fight stuff!' Very good advice" Jason replied.  
Percy blushed and everyone snickered, while Hercules, who was really jealous of Percy, was happy that his half-brother didn't like Percy either, not recognizing the joking tone Jason was using.  
((Being a half-blood is dangerous.))  
"Correct," said most of the demigods.  
The gods raised their eyebrows.  
((It's scary.))  
"Correct," said the demigods again.  
((Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.))  
The demigods winced and stated, "Correct again."  
The gods were truly impatient and worried now. What had happened to these demigods to make them so bitter?  
"Wow, Percy was acting sensible and said sensible things three times in a row!!!! This is actually insane," Nico said while the demigods laughed. Percy didn't even bother to say anything.  
((If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.))  
"Lucky mortals," mumbled Piper (A/N: and here we are saying, "Lucky demigods.")  
((But if you recognize yourself in these pages – if you feel something stirring inside – stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.))  
The demigods shuddered, knowing what "they" were.  
((Don't say I didn't warn you.))  
"Perrrrrrrrrrrrrcccccyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy," Frank started.  
"Oh Please, don't----" Percy was cut off by Hazel who said sweetly, "You didn't warn us."  
Pecy face-palmed and Theseus clapped him on the back. "Me neither," he said.  
((My name is Percy Jackson .I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid?))  
"Oh heck yeah!" said Thalia.  
Poseidon got up in rage. "How DARE you say that about my son!"  
"Relax dad, that's exactly what I think about myself," Percy said. This calmed Poseidon down.   
Hades snickered at his brother, while Thalia saddened a bit. She just thought of how Percy's dad was so protective of him while her dad..... is there anything to say? Artemis was.... surprised. A male was insulting himself?  
((Yeah. You could say that.))  
This made all the Olympians and the demigods laugh, even Dionysus.  
"Well maybe a Cereal would fix that," began Demeter.  
"Athena, Read!" Zeus exclaimed. And Athena lost no time in continuing.  
((I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it,))  
Poseidon looked worried. Why was his son's life miserable? It didn't have anything to do with him, did it?  
((but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan – twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.))  
"Wow," Athena and Annabeth sighed at the same time. Their eyes were starry from just picturing the scene.  
((I know – it sounds like torture.))   
Annabeth laughed, "typical, seaweed brain." And she ruffled Percy's already messy hair.  
Poseidon started noticing the Athena girl's closeness to his boy too, as did the other gods. Aphrodite had sensed a strong aura of love among the future demigods, she just couldn't locate it. She wondered......  
((Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.))   
"Wait....IS THAT CHIRON?" Perseus exclaimed.  
"Yep. Chiron The Latin Teacher," Grover replied.  
"Wow. Chiron himself came to teach you, dude you must be something" Jason1 said, making Percy blush and turn away. Aretmis' eyebrows rose at his reaction.  
((You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armour and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.))  
"You slept in class!" Athena shouted.  
"Lady Athena, believe me, the modern time classes will put even you to sleep," Nico aside, defending Percy.  
((I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. Boy, was I wrong. See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.))   
All the Olympians and the demigods were laughing hysterically.   
"Boy," Apollo chuckled, "You're good."  
((And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.))  
"We want more!" Hermes whined.  
((This trip, I was determined to be good. All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly red-headed kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend, Grover, in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.))  
"Ewwww," Aphrodite squealed, while Grover's friends were fuming  
((Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.))   
"It's really heart-warming to know that my best-friend thinks so high of me," said Grover sarcastically.  
"I was twelve and this is the stuff that my twelve-year-old-brain thought before I knew about this world," Percy explained himself.  
((He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.))   
"Way to blow your cover, Grover," Piper said while Grover blushed.  
((Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death))  
"WHAT!" Poseidon bellowed.  
((-by-in-school-suspension))  
"Oh," he said and calmed down.  
((if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. 'I'm going to kill her,' I mumbled.))   
"Do it!" shouted Nico. It surprised some people since they didn't think that Grover and Nico were close.  
((Grover tried to calm me down. 'It's okay. I like peanut butter.'))  
"In your hair?" Nico asked.  
((He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. 'That's it.' I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat. 'You're already on probation,' he reminded me. 'You know who'll get blamed if anything happens.' Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.))  
"Why? What happened?" asked Orion stupidly.  
"Just let Athena read on," Grover said.  
((In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. Mr Brunner led the museum tour.He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.   
He gathered us around a four-metre-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say,))  
"At least he's trying," thought Athena.  
((because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs Dodds, would give me the evil eye.))   
"Why do I think she's trouble?" said Frank, while Nico thought the name'Mrs. Dodds' sounded familiar. Had Percy ever mentioned her?   
((Mrs Dodds was this little maths teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.))   
Hades' eyes widened. Could it be....? But why would he send his head Fury after his nephew. If he had done that, then the future him had to be really messed-up.  
The other gods didn't realize which monster this was or else they, especially Poseidon, wouldn't be too happy as they all, minus Artemis (she didn't trust the boy just now) and Zeus (because....well.... he was Zeus), had taken a small liking to him.  
((She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last maths teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.))  
"But that's Nico," said Leo and Hades gave him the evil eye which made the demigods and some of the gods shudder. The truth was, even though Hades didn't know Nico much just now, he was beginning to like him because, well, he was his son.  
((She would point her crooked finger at me and say, 'Now, honey,' real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after school detention for a month.))   
"Woah dude! That honey thing must be creepy," said Leo.  
"You have no idea," said Percy darkly.  
((One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old maths workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs Dodds was human. He looked at me real serious and said, 'You're absolutely right.'))   
"Brilliant, Grover," said Jason   
Mr Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, 'Will you shut up?' It came out louder than I meant it to.  
"Ooooohhhh, imagine if you're a teacher in a wheelchair, who's explaining stuff to his students and then suddenly a child screams, 'Will you shut up!' and you don't know that this kid was talking to someone else and immediately presume it was directed at you," said Apollo. This made Athena wince.  
((The whole group laughed. Mr Brunner stopped his story.'Mr Jackson,' he said, 'did you have a comment?' My face was totally red. I said, 'No, sir.' Mr Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. 'Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?' I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. 'That's Kronos eating his kids, right?'))   
"Why does it have to be that one," groaned Demeter.  
(('Yes,' Mr Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. 'And he did this because...'   
'Well...' I racked my brain to remember. 'Kronos was the king god, and))   
"GOD!" Zeus thundered, "You nasty little----"  
"Chillax dude, I corrected myself," said Percy  
Everyone (minus the future people) looked at him shocked. No one told Zeus to 'Chillax dude.'  
((–''God?' Mr. Brunner asked.' Titan,' I corrected myself. 'And... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters –''Eeew!' said one of the girls behind me.'– and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans,' I continued, 'and the gods won.'))   
"Only this Seaweed brain could summarize the biggest war in history like that," said Annabeth.  
((Some snickers from the group. Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, 'Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, "Please explain why Kronos ate his kids".))  
"Hmmm....maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea if that really happened," Athena pondered.  
((''And why, Mr. Jackson,' Brunner said, 'to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?' 'Busted,' Grover muttered. 'Shut up,' Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got in trouble, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.))  
"Nope, horse ears," said Ares.  
((I thought about his question and shrugged. 'I don't know, sir.'   
'I see.' Mr Brunner looked disappointed. 'Well, half credit, Mr Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach.))  
Aphrodite ran outside to puke and Ares and Hephaestus, both rushed to her aid.  
((The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch.))  
"Happy note?! Happy note?!" exclaimed Hazel.  
(("Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?' The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.))   
"Which they are," said Artemis.  
((Grover and I were about to follow when Mr Brunner said, 'Mr Jackson.' I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned towards Mr Brunner. 'Sir?' Mr Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go – intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. 'You must learn the answer to my question,' Mr Brunner told me.' About the Titans?' 'About real life. And how your studies apply to it.'   
'Oh.'))   
"And this, people, is the most common reply you'll be receiving from Percy Jackson, The Legend," said Nico dramatically.  
(('What you learn from me,' he said, 'is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.'))   
"Well now this is too harsh Chiron," said Orion.  
((I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.))   
"It was for your own good Seaweed," said Annabeth hugging him.  
"I know that now, Anne-girl," Percy hugged back. Aphrodite, who had come back, squealed excitedly. Her suspicions were true! Yayy.  
But Athena and Poseidon didn't think the same.  
Athena stood up so fast that her throne knocked over. Poseidon didn't look that aggressive, but he wasn't calm either.  
"Annabeth! What aren't you telling me?" Athena demanded with a dangerous edge to her voice.  
"Ummm Mum, Percy and I maybe, sort of, well, not sort of, but, like......dating," Annabeth said nervously  
"WHAT!?!? This is UNACCEPTABLE, I really thought you'd be wiser than that, being my child. I most certainly will not allow you to date old barnacle beard's son!" Athena shouted. Everyone else watched this terrified.  
Now Poseidon lost his cool. He deserved to be respected! "You know what? I don't like my son dating this Owl head's daughter either. I mean Percy, what do you see in her, a girl who has no special powers and can just think?"  
This hit Percy like a hurricane. No one, not even his dad could insult his Wise-girl and get away with it.  
Percy stepped forward, "Let's see what this girl who you claim can 'just think' has done! There are a lot of great things that Annabeth has done, but let's overlook the major ones. Now I can't tell you what really happened, but I can give you an overview. Hmmm, now I remember one of the many times when Annabeth saved your godly a*ses was when Mr. Lightening Loser here led you all to destruction, even when Athena told him that it was wrong, he didn't listen, while the main thing nearly destroyed Olympus. In fact, if it weren't for Annabeth, Kro-"  
Percy was stopped by Annabeth who said, "Stop, The Fates told to not give too much away." And Percy stopped.  
Poseidon sat back down guilty, while everyone looked at Percy shocked.  
Aphrodite was squealing and jumping so hard while Artemis was amazed at how loyal Percy was to his loved ones.  
Athena was another case. She just stood there as still as a statue. She never thought that there would be a day where she would see a Poseidon's child defending her children. Against their own father no less. Maybe, this one was different  
To be continued.....


	3. Let's Vaporize Our Teachers Part 2

Athena finally sat down, huffing, but said nothing. She picked up the book, that had fallen down when Athena jumped up and continued reading.

** I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: 'What ho!' and challenged us, sword-point against chalk,  **

"Sword-point against _chalk,_ wonder who'd win," said Ares mockingly.

"It wasn't for fights," Percy responded. 

** to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. **

"Oh, well then," said Ares vaguely, sad that there was no fight.

** But Mr Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life.  **

Athena grimaced and was about o say something nasty no doubt, when Annabeth saw that and she came to Percy's defense, "Mom when you have dyslexia it is't exactly easy to get good grades. It's like all the letters are dancing in front of your face, mocking you. It drives us crazy. Even I, being your daughter, barely scratched an A in my normal classes."

Athena looked slightly guilty at having forgotten this. To cover up, she immediately started reading again

** No – he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. **

"That really _is_ harsh," Athena mumbled, but nobody except Annabeth heard her. Annabeth smiled, happy that her her words had some effect on her mom. 

** And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly. **

** I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral. **

"Probably had," said Hercules.

"You're a good observer, " Artemis said to Percy before she could stop herself.

Everyone glanced at her in surprise and she looked down embarrassed. Apollo was about to make a cocky remark when Artemis shot him a glare that immediately shut him up.

Athena continued.

** He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. **

"'Sup with you two?" asked Hermes, his question directed towards Poseidon and Zeus.

"It better be something _important,_ " said Poseidon since he never flooded lands just like that, without having a good reason to. 

** Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers.Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's bag,  **

"Don't you dare look at me. She doesn't seem like a demigod. Besides, if she was mine, she'd already have done it." said Hermes

** and, of course, Mrs Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. **

"How unfair is that!" exclaimed Artemis. Everyone looked at her again. She sighed, "What? i've decided that not all males are pigs," she looked at Hercules venomously, "some _can_ be respected, at least."

Thalia smiled, "You're right M'Lady. In fact Percy is the only guy in the future that you respect."

This made the past demigods (And even some gods) gasp. Artemis' Respect for Percy increased. She trusted her future self. 

** Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school – the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.'Detention?' Grover asked.'Nah,' I said. 'Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean – I'm not a genius.' **

"Yeah right." snorted Grover.

** Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, 'Can I have your apple?' **

Everyone laughed and Grover blushed.

** I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment,only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad tojump in a taxi and head home.  **

"Mama's boy," Ares snickered. Percy's anger flared. No one insulted his and his mom's relashionship like that.

"Yeah? You didn't think I was a mama's boy when I slashed your foot off did you?"

Ares jumped up from his throne, "WHAT?!?! What are you talking about?!"

"N-nothing dad. i'm sure it's not like Percy puts it. I'm sure it'll be alright," Frank stuttered. Everyone, except Percy and The Big Three, was scared seeing Ares this angry, even Hercules (though he won't admit it).

Athena started reading again.

** She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. **

** She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years  **

Everyone except Anabeth and Grover looked at Percy incredulously. 

"Dude, you never told us that!" Jason exclaimed.

"Wow. And I thought _I_ was bad, " said Leo.

Poseidon paled. "You really are a trouble magnet, aren't you?" he asked.

Percy just noded.

** and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me. **

Hera smiled at how strong the mother-son relationship was. She grimaced when she thought of _her_ sons' relationship with her.

** Mr Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.  **

Hephaestus, who was getting kinda bored, looked up, suddenly interested. While Leo thought that he just _had_ to add a motorized table at Camp Half-Blood. 

** I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends – I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists – and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap. **

"That girl has no manners!" Demeter exclaimed. Grover's friends were practically growling.

** 'Oops.' She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.I tried to stay cool. The school counsellor had told me a million times, 'Count to ten, get control of your temper.' But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, 'Percy pushed me!'Mrs Dodds materialized next to us.Some of the kids were whispering: 'Did you see –''– the water –''– like it grabbed her –' **

Everyone was in awe, even Dionysus and Hercules, though the latter tried not to show it.

Zeus didn't like this so he said, "Harming innocent mortals is misuse of your powers!"

Pery laughed sarcastically, "And since when does 'Blasting Innocent Mortals Out of The Sky and Killing Them Just for the Fun of it' comes under the list of **"Fair Usage of Your Powers: Special** **edition for demigods and gods"**

That shut Zeus up **.** "There's a list?" asked Hercules stupidly. 

"No you idiot. Percy's just being his default sarcastic self," replied Thalia.

Athena started reading, before her father got angry and started the WWIII.

** I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.As soon as Mrs Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc.,  **

** Mrs Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if **

** I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. 'Now, honey –''I know,' I grumbled. 'A month erasing textbooks.'That wasn't the right thing to say. **

"Sure it wasn't! You should never guess your punishment beforehand," said Hermes.

** 'Come with me,' Mrs Dodds said.'Wait!' Grover yelped. 'It was me. I pushed her.'I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs Dodds scaredGrover to death. **

"Grover," said Thalia, "that was really brave."

Grover blushed, pleased

** She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.'I don't think so, Mr Underwood,' she said.'But –''You – will– stay – here.'Grover looked at me desperately.'It's okay, man,' I told him. 'Thanks for trying.' 'Honey,' Mrs Dodds barked at me. 'Now.' Nancy Bobofit smirked.I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. I then turned to face Mrs Dodds, but she wasn't there.She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.How'd she get there so fast?I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counsellor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. I wasn't so sure. **

"That's....that's _wise,_ " said Athena, surprised.

Annabeth practically beamed, happy that her mom was showing acceptance for her Seaweed Brain.

** I went after Mrs Dodds.Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between meand Mr Brunner, like he wanted Mr Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr Brunner was absorbed in his novel . **

"That's irresponsible of him," said Aphrodite.

"It's Ok mom, maybe he wanted to test Percy," said Piper.

"Yeah, but it is obvious that this twelve-year-old Percy, who's had _no_ training, and knows nothing about this world is going to be dead meat in seconds if he doesn't get help soon. If he _was_ testing my brother, it was stupid of him," said Theseus.

Percy just smirked.

"I wonder what monster this is," said Poseidon. Almost everybody didn't notice Hades slowly shifting his throne farther away from Poseidon. Nico, who was watching his father very closely, did notice this, however. Suddenly he remembered that when Percy had once seen Alecto, he had called her 'Mrs. Dodds'. Nico eyes widened, but he didn't say anything as he didn't want his father in trouble beforehand.

** I looked back up. Mrs Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. **

"How I wish it had been that," said Percy, making most of the people present worry for him.

** But apparently that wasn't the plan. **

"It never is," said Hazel sadly.

** I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...'You've been giving us problems, honey,' she said. I did the safe thing. I said, 'Yes, ma'am. 'She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. 'Did you really think you would get away with it?' The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.  **

Zeus snorted, "Yeah right."

** I said, 'I'll – I'll try harder, ma'am. 'Thunder shook the building. **

"You better not cause any troubles for my son!" Poseidon glared at Zeus.

Zeus would never admit it, but secretly he was a little scared of Poseidon. He prayed to all the higher powers that the future him wouldn't be stupid, and wouldn't cause any troubles to this upstart of a boy.

** 'We are not fools, Percy Jackson,' Mrs Dodds said. 'It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain. 'I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.  **

"How much did you make?" asked Apollo, amused.

"Not much," said Percy "$50 at least."

** Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book. **

"It isn't that bad," said Athena

"Dyslexia," answered Percy and Athena almost face-palmed. 

** 'Well?' she demanded. 'Ma'am, I don't...''Your time is up,' she hissed. Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human.  **

"Yup, she was a chihuahua," muttered Hades.

** She was a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. **

There was a moment of silence. Then....

"YOU SENT A FURY AFTER MY SON!" bellowed Poseidon. He rose, his Trident in his hand. He looked like a neucleur bomb, full of power, ready to blast anyone and everyone that came in his way. Percy started to say something, but Athena beat him to it, "' _ **Will send'** _a fury after your son. You need to improve your grammar Kelp Head."

Everyone started laughing and that diffused the tension a bit.

Then Percy said, "And don't worry dad, Hades was misled. That's why he sent them after me. But in the end, everything was fine."

** Then things got even stranger. Mr Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. 'What ho, Percy!' he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.Mrs Dodds lunged at me. With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen any more. It was a sword  **

"Woah cool," said Perseus.

"Hey, that's my sword!" said Hercules.

Percy finally cracked. He uncapped Riptide, that had been in his pocket, and practically flew towards Hercules. Hercules raised _his_ Riptide, but Percy disarmed him in no time. Within seconds Hercules was lying on the floor, Riptide's blade just inches from his throat. "This is Zoe Nightshade's. And she is ok with me having it. The same can't be said for _you._ If you say _another word_ against us, then it'll be you head lying there instead of your sword," Percy snarled, pointing towards Hercules' sword. 

Hercules just whimpered. Percy stepped back and walked towards where his friends were. The gods watched this exchange amused. Now, obviously they'd stop Percy from beheading Hercules if it really got to that, but honestly they were tired of him. Everyone. Including Zeus.

Artemis looked at Percy in awe. She had no doubt now that she liked Percy and he had won her complete and utter respect by silencing one of her favourite huntress' most-hated male like that

Athena continued.

** – Mr Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day. **

** Mrs. Dodds spun towards me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. She snarled, 'Die, honey!' And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!  **

Everyone, even Zeus looked at Percy shocked. "N-no way!" said Theseus

"Yes way," grinned Annabeth.

"As I said. You are something, dude." Jason1 said.

** Mrs Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot,  **

"Hence the weird title," said Leo

** leaving nothing but the smell of sulphur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me. **

"Why so melodramatic Perce?" joked Thalia

"Why so prickly Thals?" Percy said smirking.

"No no you should've said 'Why so _piney_ Thals'," Nico said and Grover, Annabeth, Percy and Thalia started laughing while the others stared at them in confusion. 

Athena continued,

** I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.  **

There was a glint in Hermes' eyes that screamed: TROUBLE.

** Had I imagined the whole thing? **

"Ha! You wish." said Ares

** I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, 'I hope Mrs Kerr whipped your butt.' I said, 'Who?' 'Our teacher. Duh!' **

"Huh?" said Orion.

"The Mist," Hazel said simply.

"Oh."

** I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs Dodds was. He said, 'Who?' But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.  **

"Grover," said Hermes seriously, as if he was discussing the war plan of World War2, "You need lying lessons."

"No, thanks, my lord" said Grover quite politely, afraid he'd offend Hermes. but it was _Hermes_ not _Zeus._

** 'Not funny, man,' I told him. 'This is serious.' Thunder boomed overhead. **

Poseidon glared at Zeus.

** I saw Mr Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him.He looked up, a little distracted. 'Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr Jackson.'I handed it over. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it. 'Sir,' I said, 'where's Mrs Dodds?'He stared at me blankly. 'Who?' 'The other chaperone. Mrs Dodds. The maths teacher.'He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. 'Percy, there is no Mrs Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?' **

"Chiron's really good at lying." said Perseus

Hermes replied "Well, he's spent thousands of years lying. How could he not be?" 

Everyone raised their eyebrows.

"I-I meant that he's thousands of years old and he's experienced so-"

Poseidon cut him off, "If you don't mind, Athena I'd like to read the next chapter myself since this is about _my_ son's life."

Athena handed him the book. Then he turned towards the demigods, "And why are you all still standing?"

"Pfft, I don't know. Maybe because there's nowhere to sit?" said Thalia, sarcastically. Her legs were hurting like a bitch by standing up for so long.

Hestia, who had been so quiet all this time, came forward and surprised everyone. She made a couch appear from midair and the demigods sat down gratefully.

"Thanks Aunt Hes," said Percy.

Hestia smiled at him and he smiled back. She already liked her nephew.


	4. Knitting some socks Percy Jackson Style part1

**"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death"** read Poseidon.

"I sure ain't wearing those socks anytime soon," said Apollo.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twentyfour/ seven hallucination was more than I could handle.**

"I _should_ feel sorry for you, except I don't," said Dionysus. Suddenly the Earth beneath his feet started shaking and a really powerful, yet miniature whirlpool sucked him in. All the gods and godesses, except Poseidon got up and some demigods shrieked. For once, it seemed Dionysus was sober.

"Apologize to my son!" Poseidon thundered.

"S-sorry," Dionysus gasped. Immediately, the whirlpool ended and left a soaked Dionysus who was scared shitless.

Then Poseidon continued as if he nothing happened.

**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs Kerr – a perky blonde woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip – had been our maths teacher since Christmas.**

I wonder where they got her from?" mused Artemis.

Hazel was having other thoughts. She said, "This is some really powerful mist manipulation."

"Seems fit, for the most powerful demigod ever to live," said Grover.

"That happened with Jason too!" Piped up Piper.

"Yeah, my kids are more brilliant. Besides, he killed a fury. So what? That doesn't exactly make him 'The Most Powerful Demigod'. Now, if he does something that gods did, obviously I'm not saying defeating Kronos or Gaea or fighting the giants that would be _way_ impossible and no demigod, however powerful, would be able to do _that_ and still be in one piece-" Zeus' rant was interrupted by Percy, who said, "How....ironic."

But of course, no one heard him except the future demigods who started laughing, hysterically. Zeus and the other gods and past demigods looked at them questioningly. When they finished, Poseidon started reading again, not wanting his brother to start his pointless rant again. _Obviously_ none of the demigods could do anything the gods did. What did Zeus expect?

Every so often I would spring a Mrs Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.

The demigods looked at Percy compassionately. They knew the feeling, and it was HORRIBLE x 100.

**It got so I almost believed them – Mrs Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"I bet my caduceus it's this satyr, Grover," said Hermes.

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Ha!" said Hermes.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then**

**claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying**

"Grover, come with me. This is a really serious matter. Your lying lessons start today," Hermes stated, getting up and proceeding towards Grover.

"You aren't serious!" Exclaimed Hephaestus. He was so quiet that nobody even noticed him until that moment.

 **"This** is serious. Nobody should be this bad at lying. It's a crime against humanity!" said Hermes.

"Shut up, Hermes," said Aphrodite, putting charmspeak in her voice because the book was getting interesting and Hermes was killing the mood.

Grover shot her a grateful look.

**Something was going on. Something _had_ happened at the museum.**

**"** Oh no Perce, that was just a figment of your _really_ crazy imagination," said Nico sarcastically.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room.**

"What do you have against my children?" asked Poseidon, exasperated.

**A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.**

"What do you have against me?" asked Zeus.

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"What do you have against each other!?" exclaimed Demeter. She stood up and walked out of the throne room. 

"Where do you think _she's_ going?" asked Ares.

"Who cares? As long as she stays where she is," said Zeus.

Hades suddenly realized what would happen and for the first time in forever, he prayed for the safety of his brothers.

Poseidon was just starting to read again when Demeter came back. She looked wild. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her hair was a mess. Her hands looked like talons and in each hand she was carrying a bowl filled with some gooey material.

She looked at Zeus and Poseidon and said, "Will my baby brothers like some CEREAL!!??" she was practically growling. Everyone (even the gods) cowered. Then, Hades got up saying, "I'm tired of this!"

"W-what happened to her?" squeaked Aphrodite. 

Hades sighed steering Demeter away, "Losing Persephone and staying most of the time in the Underworld made her a bit....unhinged. Don't worry these moods come only when she's exceedingly upset. I know just what to do." 

Zeus and Poseidon looked at each other guiltily. This mood of Demeter had come on because of them. Silently, they agreed that when the time comes, they would _try_ not to fight this bad in the future. 

Hmmm seems like they were learning something from these book-reading sessions.

Poseidon continued.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"I feel sorry for you," said Athena sincerely.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

Everyone laughed and Dionysus looked like he wanted nothing more than to turn Percy into a dolphin. But he couldn't do that since 'apparently' the future depended on this Peter Johnson.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"I'll tell Paul you said that," said Leo.

"Dude, this isn't Paul we're talking about," replied Percy.

"Who's Paul?" asked Poseidon

"He's my mortal step-father," said Percy, a look of Affection and respect crossing his face. Poseidon couldn't help being jealous. Did Percy ever look like that when he talked about _him_? Surely, the mortal couldn't be better than him.

"Well, according to this, I think you find him obnoxious," said Poseidon.

"This _isn't_ Paul I'm talking about," Percy said.

Poseidon decided to drop the subject.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance,**

"The river of course," said Annabeth, smiling.

**the smell of pine trees.**

"I did smell great didn't I?" said Thalia.

Percy rolled his eyes, "For the last time Thalia! All the pine trees in the world aren't _you_!"

Artemis raised her eyebrows, "Well, I can't see how even _one_ of the pine trees in the world can be Thalia."

Thalia smiled sadly, "You'll see, My lady."

**I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,**

Grover looked at Percy with wide eyes, "I didn't know I meant that much to you _then_."

"You were and are my first best friend G-Man," smiled Percy.

**even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

Artemis' looked surprised. Sure she thought Percy was good, but he was worrying about his best friend when he should be worried about himself! A good, Loyal male, now that was a new one.

**I'd miss Latin class, too – Mr Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr Brunner**

**had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Smart," commented Athena, earning a few surprised looks from some gods and some demigods (*cough* Hercules *cough*).

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the _Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology_ across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.**

"Man, I sure do hate it when the letters start conducting disco parties right in front of my effing face," groaned Leo

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces.**

"It's easier now that I've met them," said Percy.

Poseidon Paled. What other things had his son faced?

Hades, who had returned without Demeter (something that Zeus and Poseidon especially noticed) asked, "You know Charon?"

"Yeah and a right pain in the a*s("Language!" Hera exclaimed) he is," said Grover.

**And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt**.

"I feel for you," groaned Apollo.

When Artemis turned to him questioningly he just said, "I pranked Demeter once."

And that was enough for everyone to understand.

**I remembered Mr Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr Brunner, he could give me somepointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat 'F' I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Awww that's so cute," Aphrodite cooed.

Artemis scowled. Leave it to Aphrodite to make a noble act look utterly disgusting.

Athena however was surprised. A sea spawn actually worried about his studies? She couldn't help but wonder where Barnacle beard had gotten him from.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

Hermes acted like he was sniffing the air. Then he said, "I smell trouble."

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said, '... worried about Percy, sir.'I froze.I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"I sure won't hesitate," said Piper in the most Aphrodite-like voice. Immediately, she regretted it. She didn't wanna be like her mom.

 **I inched closer.'... alone this summer,' Grover was saying. 'I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that weknow for sure, and they know too –''We would only make matters worse by rushing him,' Mr Brunner said. 'We need the boy to mature more.'** "If they had waited for that, it would've taken them a life-time, probably more," said Jason.  
 **'But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline –''Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can.''Sir, he saw her...''His imagination,' Mr Brunner insisted. 'The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that.''Sir, I... I can't fail in my duties again.' Grover's voice was choked with emotion.**

"You talkin about me?" Thalia asked

Grover just looked away

The gods however were bursting with curosity. What HAD happened to this Zeus-girl that involved a pine-tree and a young satyr failing his duties?

**'You know**

**what that would mean.''You haven't failed, Grover,' Mr Brunner said kindly. 'I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next autumn –'**

"Definitely me," Thalia frowned.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"And I thought you'd make a good prankster!" Hermes shouted.

**Mr Brunner went silent.My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"You _would_ make a good prankster," said Hermes.

"Yeah, if he's dumb enough to waste his ingenuity and quick-thinking on pointless pranks," thought Athena.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.Somewhere in the hallway, Mr Brunner spoke. 'Nothing,' he murmured. 'My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice.'**

"Why what happened," Hera asked.

"Er, you're talking to a book," replied Poseidon

She looked away, embarrassed.

**'Mine neither,' Grover said. 'But I could have sworn...''Go back to the dorm,' Mr Brunner told him. 'You've got a long day of exams tomorrow.'**

Percy and Grover both groaned, remembering how hard those exams were.

**'Don't remind me.'The lights went out in Mr Brunner's office.I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.'Hey,' he said, bleary-eyed. 'You going to be ready for this test?'**

"Good actor, but a bad lier," said Hermes.

**I didn't answer.'You look awful.' He frowned. 'Is everything okay?''Just... tired.'I turned so he couldn't read my expression,**

"But I read your emotions," said Grover.

"Yeah, but I didn't know that," replied Percy.

**and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"Oh no, they were just planning a part for the party ponies, and you would have the privelege to be the Piñata," said Thalia sarcastically.

"You know the way you say it, it makes it sound like we were planning a huge underground missions or something," said Grover.

Percy rolled his eyes and Poseidon continued reading.

**A/N: Working on part2 rn**


	5. Knitting Some Socks Percy Jackson Style Part2

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names**

**I'd misspelled,**

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of pure and utter torture," groaned Percy

**Mr Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**'Percy,' he said. 'Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's... it's for the best.'**

Everyone groaned. "He's gonna take it the wrong way," saidAnnabeth

"Chiron really does need to practice his pep-talks," said Hermes, frowning. He had really begun to like Chiron for his lying skills.

"This is not the way to talk to children," said Hera. Hephaestus snorted, "As if _you_ know any better."

Poseidon continued reading. Nobody wanted to hear Hera's unreasonable excuses for her appalling behaviour.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"I don't think those were sarcastic," smirked Grover.

All the demigods gaped at him. The gods watched this, amused.

"Y-you aren't suggesting—" started Percy.

"I _might_ have heard somethings back there that weren't meant for me or you to know. I don't know why I didn't bust poor little Nancy right then and there, especially after she treated us like that," said Grover.

"Ooooh," said Aphrodite, "A love triangle!"

"Well, I must say that a crush is a poor excuse to bully someone and their best friend like that," said Jason and all the demigods agreed.

Annabeth was seeing red. She slung her arm across Percy and looked at everyone as if to remind them that Percy had chosen her to be his girlfriend. She didn't wanna be that-clingy-girlfriend, but no one made a move on her seaweed brain, nuh huh, not happening.

Percy hugged her back ad Poseidon continued,

**I mumbled, 'Okay, sir.'**

**'I mean...' Mr Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. 'This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.'**

"What is he _suggesting!?_ " exclaimed Hera.

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favourite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it.**

"That _is_ pretty depressing," said Perseus.

**After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**'Right,' I said, trembling.**

**'No, no,' Mr Brunner said. 'Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say... you're not normal, Percy.**

"Great, just great," groaned Theseus.

**That's nothing to be –'**

**'Thanks,' I blurted. 'Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.'**

**'Percy –'**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a**

**hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month.**

"That seems fun," said Piper, "What were you doing?"

"Read to find out," replied Percy.

**They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were _rich_ juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Hey!" thundered Zeus, "Who are you calling a nobody?"

Percy smirked, "Nobody is Nobody and I like Nobody and Nobody likes me and also Nobody likes everybody."

Everyone, except Grover and Annabeth, was baffled by this.

The trio that had sailed the sea of monsters started laughing.

"Read, dad," said Percy and Poseidon continued,

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

"At least they asked," said Hestia.

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the autumn.**

"Why? Didn't your mum and step-dad do anything?" asked Zeus.

"Well, mum would've if you wouldn't've crashed—never mind, just.... read," Percy glared at Zeus, while Zeus frowned. What was that about?

**'Oh,' one of the guys said. 'That's cool.'**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Well, never mind," said Hestia.

**The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to, was Grover but, as it turned out, I didn't have to.**

**He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Stalker alert," said Orion.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased.**

**But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, 'Looking for Kindly Ones?'**

"That killed me, that did," said Grover.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. 'Wha – what do you mean?'**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. 'How much did you hear?'**

**'Oh... not much. What's the summer-solstice deadline?'**

"Oh....not much. Just what the whole thing would be about," said Thalia.

**He winced. 'Look, Percy... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon maths teachers...'**

'Grover, you're a really, really bad liar.' Groaned Hermes.

**'Grover –'**

**'And I was telling Mr Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs Dodds, and...'**

**'Grover, you're a really, really bad liar.'**

"Wow, we think the same," said Hermes.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. 'Just take this, okay? In case you need**

**me this summer.'**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,**

"Why is it like that?" asked Zeus.

"Probably to torture us. Ask Dionysus," replied Annabeth.

"What am I doing there?" asked Dionysus.

"Serving a punishment," replied Grover.

Percy thought about something, then he said, "Hey! Let's just tell him what he would do to deserve this punishment. Then he wont do that and maybe he wouldn't have to come to camp. That way, we won't suffer, he won't suffer, win-win on all sides!"

"As much as I would like that, no," said Annabeth, "We can't tell them anything _about_ the future. Let them figure their mistakes out on their own."

Poseidon continued, slightly amused.

**but I finally made out something like:**

**_Grover Underwood, Keeper_ **

**_Half-Blood Hill_ **

**_Long Island, New York_ **

**_(800)009-0009_ **

**'What's Half –'**

**'Don't say it aloud!' he yelped. 'That's my, um... summer address.'**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"This Percy seems insecure," frowned Nico.

"I was, and you'd find out why soon enough," said Percy darkly.

Poseidon continued, a bit scared and angry. If someone _dared_ to harm his son, they'd have to deal with him.

**'Okay,' I said glumly. 'So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion.'**

**He nodded. 'Or... or if you need me.'**

**'Why would I need you?'**

**It came out harsher than I meant it too.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. 'Look, Percy, the truth is, I – I kind of have to protect you.'**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.**

"You'd lost sleep over me!" exclaimed Grover.

"Yeah cz you were my best friend," said Percy, clapping Grover on the back.

Grover smiled happily while Artemis was mulling over how loyal Percy was.

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended _me_.**

**'Grover,' I said, 'what exactly are you protecting me from?'**

"All the beings that ever existed," said Leo bluntly.

This caused Poseidon to pale. Why his son??!! Normally, it was Zeus' kids that the monsters went after.

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway. After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off.**

"I smell trouble, again," said Hermes darkly.

"Oh no," Hestia frowned.

"Another monster!" Ares cheered.

**Grover and I filed outside with everybody else. We were on a stretch of country road – no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

"Mmmm fruits!" cheered Demeter. Everyone jumped. She had come back, but no one noticed. She looked fine now.

Sharing another guilty glance with Zeus, Poseidon continued,

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood-red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree,**

Athena gasped. She'd figured out who this was. Suddenly she felt worried for the fate of her daughter's boyfriend.

For the sake of her daughter of course! She couldn't care less about Poseidon's son. (or so she thought)

**knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

"Is this where the title comes in?" asked Hephaestus.

Almost all of the other gods didn't know who those 3 ladies were except Athena and Artemis, who figured it out. She _was_ worried about the boy, but she was more interested in how he would deal with this situation.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn. All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

The throne room went silent

4....,3....,2....,1....,

And all Hades broke loose....

"WHY ARE THE SOCKS BLUE??!! IT'S _MY_ COLOR!" said Zeus standing up and summoning his lightening bolt.

"WHY WOULD THE THREE FATES GO AFTER MY SON??!!" shouted Poseidon, standing up and making the book fall off his lap.

"Shouldn't he be dead? He saw the fates! He SHOULD be dead!"bellowed said Hades, also standing up.

"A little boy suffering all that! That is so Unfair!" exclaimed Hestia also (you guessed it) standing up.

"MY SON! THIS IS MY SON! WHY? WHY HIM!" Poseidon continued shrieking.

"I DEMAND TO KNOW WHY ARE THE SOCKS BLUE??!! IT'S _MY_ COLOR!" Thundered Zeus.

"This is some really creepy stuff," Apollo shuddered.

"CREEPY? CREEP? A BOY, A LITTLE TWELVE-YEAR-OLD BOY HAS SEEN THE FATES HOW CAN YOU JUST CALL THIS CREEPY?" Screamed Hera. She didn't really cared about Percy, but she was scared because the three fates always terrified her.

Aphrodite started screaming at the top of her lungs—just for the fun of it.

"MY SON! WHY MY SON OF ALL PEOPLE?!!? WHY MY SON!" Continued Poseidon.

"WHY ARE THE SOCKS BLUE??!!" said Zeus.

At that moment Ares started roaring like a maniac.

"But shouldn't he be dead? He saw the fates! He SHOULD be dead!"bellowed Hades again.

"I tell you, this is some really creepy stuff," repeated Apollo.

"I TOLD YOU A BOY, A LITTLE TWELVE-YEAR-OLD BOY HAS SEEN THE FATES HOW CAN YOU JUST CALL THIS CREEPY," said Hera.

"But shouldn't he be dead? He saw the fates! He SHOULD be dead!"

"MY SON! WHY MY SON OF ALL PEOPLE?!!? WHY MY SON!" 

"NO BLUE SOCKS FOR POSEIDON'S SON!"

"CREEPY!"

"CREEPY? CREEPY??!! THE FATES ARE CREEPY!"

"BLUE SOCKS!"

"MY SON!"

The demigods watched this amused. 

Hermes recorded it all.

Finally Hephaestus summoned his Large ablaze hammer. He smashed it against the floor ad everyone quietened.

"Glad we settled that," stated Hephaestus before sitting back down.

"Dad, don't worry, everything'll be okay, just continue reading," said Percy.

Everyone eventually calmed down and thought that they had behaved rather childishly. Embarrassed they waited for Poseidon to continue.

Poseidon continued,

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Poseidon tensed, but didn't start screaming again.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face.**

"That was one of the worst frights that I got in my life," stated Grover.

**His nose was twitching. 'Grover?' I said. 'Hey, man –' 'Tell me they're not looking at you. They are. Aren't they?' 'Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?'**

"Not funny Perce," Nico and Thalia groaned at the same time.

**'Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all. 'The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors – gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.**

Hera shuddered. Most of the Olympians did. Hestia looked as if she wanted to jump in the book and save Percy.

**I heard Grover catch his breath. 'We're getting on the bus,' he told me. 'Come on.' 'What?' I said. 'It's a thousand degrees in there.'**

"You should listen to him boy! NO BLUE SOCKS FOR YOU!" exclaimed Zeus.

Percy wondered what was with Zeus and him (Percy) having blue things. He smirked wondering what Zeus' reaction would be when he came to know about all of Percy's blue stuff and his obsession with it.

**'Come on!' He prised open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

"Well then you're an idiot," said Hercules. He immediately regretted it, remembering Percy's warning. But Percy didn't wanna waste his time and energy on this idiot.

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

All Hades was about to break loose when Percy said, "It wasn't mine."

"Then whose was it?" asked Artemis.

Percy looked at Annabeth and Grover. He had told them about this and they understood.

"You'll soon know," said Annabeth not taking her eyes off Percy.

"Why would the fates cut someone else's life thread in front of you," asked Theseus. 

Percy just shrugged, "you'll know."

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks,leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for – Sasquatch or Godzilla. At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

"About time!" said Leo.

**The passengers cheered.'Darn right!' yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. 'Everybody back on board!'Once we got going. I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.'Grover?'**

**'Yeah?'**

**'What are you not telling me?'**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. 'Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?'**

**'You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like... Mrs Dodds, are they?' His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs Dodds.**

"You have good instincts," commented Athena, much to the delight of Annabeth, and the surprise of everyone else.

**He said, 'Just tell me what you saw.'**

**'The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.'He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost – older.**

Dionysus looked at Percy curiously, "How did you know?"

Percy shrugged again, "Instincts and I guess old superstitions and stuff."

**He said, 'You saw her snip the cord.'**

**'Yeah. So?' But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**'This is not happening,' Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. 'I don't want this to be like the last time.'**

**'What last time?'**

**'Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth.'**

"Grover! That was _not_ your fault. I _chose_ that," said Thalia exasperated.

By this time the gods knew not to say anything since they wouldn't get an answer anyway. tThey just had to 'read to find out.'

**'Grover,' I said, because he was really starting to scare me.**

"That'd scare anyone," mumbled Thalia.

**'What are you talking about?'**

**'Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me.'**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**'Is this like a superstition or something?' I asked.**

**No answer.'Grover – that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?' He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

Poseidon shuddered. "I _cannot_ continue. Anyone else like to take it from here?"

Hermes took the book from him, "This is getting interesting."

**A/N: Thank you for reading this. Comment what you think about it :)**


	6. When your best friend unexpectedly loses their pants part1

**"Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants"** read Hermes.

Grover blushed right down to his adam's apple.

Aphrodite grimaced, "Not sure I wanna read that."

"I-It isn't what you think it is," stuttered Grover.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"You WHAT!?!?" exclaimed Poseidon.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering, 'Why does this always happen?' and, 'Why does it always have to be sixth grade?'**

"No offence Grover, but this would scare anyone. This is some _really_ creepy stuff," said Apollo.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

"Using someone's weakness against them isn't right," stated Athena.

"It is too, with monsters and stuff," said Nico.

"Yeah but Grover isn't a monster and he is Percy's best friend," said Thalia.

"But my brother was scared," said Theseus.

Before Athena could come up with another remark, Hermes started reading,

**'East One Hundred and Fourth and First Avenue,' I told the driver.**

Hermes looked up and glanced at Apollo.

"I moved," said Percy, as if reading his mind.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

Poseidon sat forward, interested. He knew he wouldn't choose just _any_ woman. So, she _had_ to be special. And he also wanted to know who had done such a good job raising his kid. 

Aphrodite noticed this and cooed. Poseidon scowled at her.

The demigods however were smiling. Sally was in the story! She was practically the whole camp's mom. 

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

"Why what happened?" asked Poseidon, worried for his child and future wife.

Percy just looked at Zeus. Poseidon caught on.

He glared at Zeus who visibly cowered, "If you have anything to do with this, well, you'll see."

The gods looked astonished. Zeus was scared of Poseidon? They always thought it was the other way around. But they didn't know what had happened once....some years ago.

When they had visited Apollo's Oracle.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five,**

Poseidon roared, but Thalia stopped him. Zeus might not be a perfect dad but he was....dad.

"Uncle, stop! The whole point of these is that you learn something from this. Now that dad knows his faults, maybe he'd try to be better," said Thalia.

Poseidon pondered this over. And then abruptly calmed down.

**and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing programme.**

**Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school in her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family and no diploma.**

Athena was awestruck, happy, angry and horrified all at the same time. Awestruck because she wondered how had such a brilliant woman landed with Poseidon. Happy because, well, at least her daughter's boyfriend had a mother who was some good. Angry because such a hardworking woman couldn't achieve what she wanted. And horrified because why had Zeus targeted _her_ parents, of all people? She silently made a pact to help this woman, regardless of her relation with Poseidon.

Artemis was beyond angry. Here was another example of a man mistreating a woman. 

(Who knows what she would do when she learned about Gabe)

Aphrodite was musing how much power it would take to mess with a god's love life.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"Hmmm.....not much," Aphrodite thought.

Apollo smirked at Poseidon, who blushed (kinda cz he has ichor) and Athena was astonished that a smart person would think this high of Poseidon.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.**

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

"Because it'd be hard to take one," said Athena.

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret.**

"Yeah, cz I don't think Amphitrite would like that," said Hermes. Apollo looked at him and in a glance understood what Hermes was trying to say **'BLACKMAIL'**.

**Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

Poseidon sighed. This was the bad part about having children with mortals. Luckily, he never really fell deeply in love with them because it hurt alot afterwards. He just hoped that'd be true in the future.

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"A clever statement," said Athena.

"No, a clever lie. Or a clever truth. I don't know. Figure THAT out for yourselves," said Hermes.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own.**

**She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colours as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like mouldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"Did you HAVE to mention that?" snarled Aphrodite.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her,**

"I swear, if he harms you or your mom, he'll be sorry," said Poseidon.

**the way he and I got along... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television was blaring. Crisps and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"That is really really unhygienic," said Athena.

"He's a man, what do you expect?" stated Artemis.

"Urgh," said Aphrodite. She put an arm around a person who was close to her. She thought it was Ares, but it turned out to be Hephaestus. She immediately snatched her arm back and looed away in embarrassment. But she couldn't help thinking, "That felt weird."

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, 'So, you're home.'**

"So that's it!" said Thalia angrily, "No, Welcome back. Or, good to see you. Or, how has your life been?"

**'Where's my mom?'**

**'Working,' he said. 'You got any cash?'**

Hermes smirked as he read the next sentence.

**That was it. No _Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?_**

Everyone stared at Thalia. She flushed under all those gazes. Annabeth broke the silence by saying, "Told you, you and Percy are _sooooo_ much alike."

Aphrodite again started wondering about a love triangle. But then Thalia was Percy's cousin. Then she thought of how gods didn't have a DNA. Regardless, Thalia was a daughter of Zeus. But this'd add to the fun! She was a hunter of Artemis, but she could always leave the hunt. But looking over at Thalia, Aphrodite realized that Thalia would never leave the hunt and anyway she looked like her feeling had been hurt deeply already & she didn't look like she was going to pursue a new love interest any time soon. Whatever. It wasn't like Percy was going to leave Annabeth any soon either. There was too much love.

What Aphrodite didn't realise was that the person she was leaning her head on while musing all this wasn't Ares.

I'll leave it to you to guess who it was.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"I highly doubt it," said Hephaestus absentmindedly stroking Aphrodite's hair. Ares didn't miss this exchange and neither did Hera. Hera thought that it was high time Aphrodite paid attention to her _actual_ husband. Ares, however, was entirely a different case.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting pay cheques, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds.**

"How could _you_ have done that? _He_ was the one earning, not you!" exclaimed Artemis, surprising the whole throne room. Then she sat back down as if she hadn't just defended a _MALE_.

Theseus leaned his head towards Percy and whispered, ever so slightly, "Well brother, looks like you've got your fair share of girls." Theseus then winked. Percy blushed but put his arm around Annabeth as if to indicate he wouldn't leave her for the world.

**He called that our 'guy secret'. Meaning, if I told my mom,**

Hermes blinked twice, trying to check if what he read next was actually that, or if he was having some visual problems. Percy and Hermes braced themselves for the outbreak that'd happen next.

**he would punch my lights out.**

Poseidon got so angry that he burst into his original form. Fortunately, Hestia covered the demigods eyes (don't you dare ask me how, she's a goddess), though she herself was too mad to think straight. Honestly! Why was everydecent person's life made hell. 

Athena was surprised. The Son of Poseidon was abused? And why did she fell....oh no! She was feeling pity for the sea spawn!

Annabeth turned on Percy and on the behalf of all demigods, said, "Why didn't you tell us??!! That you were--that you were abused!"

Percy flinched, "Because it wasn't important."

Jason cam forward and grabbed Percy's shoulder roughly, " _You_ are important Percy Jackson. NEVER say that again!"

Theseus unsheathed his sword, "Let me get my hands on this bastard. Then he will face fate worse than Tartarus."

"Yes!" the demigods echoed.

Even Zeus thought that for a twelve-year-old this was very unfair. A common observer might've said that Hephaestus was unperturbed by this, but then the common observer might not have seen Hephaestus rubbing his hands again and again as if trying hard that his body didn't burst into flames.

When Poseidon got back to his normal form, he said, "That mortal shall perish in the depths of Tartarus! I will ruin him! I will ruin his generation! In fact I'm going right now to finish off those of his family that are alive in this era! I will-I will-"

"Dad," Percy interrupted, "He's been taken care of. Besides, he was kind of important for my safety as you'll learn afterwards. Also, it wouldn't be right if his family paid for the stuff _he_ did. Then you'd be as bad as Zeus."

Poseidon thought about this. His son's words reassured him and he didn't want to be as bad as Zeus, so he calmed down.

Then, Hermes continued.

**'I don't have any cash,' I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell**

**should've covered up everything else.**

Athena thought about that. Then it clicked. "Poseidon," she said solemnly, "Did you have a relationship with my legacy?"

Poseidon snorted, "yeah, right, why'd you think that?"

Athena scowled, "Seriously, that mortal's way too smart. She married that....man....to cover up your son's scent so that monsters won't go after him. She could easily have been my legacy."

"Ohhhhh," said everyone, except the people who already knew this.

**'You took a taxi from the bus station,' he said. 'Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change.**

"Wow, he knows maths," said Hercules, who disliked Gabe but not because of Percy. Who _wouldn't_ dislike Gabe, except maybe his mum ad dad.

**Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?'**

**Eddie, the superintendant of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy.**

**'Come on, Gabe,' he said. 'The kid just got here.'**

"Yea, C'mon Eddie! save him!" cheered Nico.

**'Am I _right?_ ' Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels.**

"C'mon Eddie, let me take you to hell!" said Nico cheerfully.

"I'll help you with that," said Hades, surprising everyone.

**The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

Aphrodite suddenly puked all over Ares. And let me tell you, it was not a good sight. She started apologising over and over again, while Hephaestus just smirked, "Who told you to practically throw yourself on her?

And if you think about it, he was actually right.

And so Aphrodite thought.

**'Fine,' I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. 'I hope you lose.'**

"Consider it done," said Dionysus. Everyone stared at him open mouthed. He frowned at them, "Don't look like that. I'm not doing this for the boy, I'm doing this because this mortal's starting to annoy me."

**'Your report card came, brain boy!' he shouted after me. 'I wouldn't act so snooty!'**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's 'study'. He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic – how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me.**

"Too late now kid," said Ares, slinging an arm across Aphrodite who shrugged it off.

And who could blame her? Would you let a person, who didn't bath properly and on whom you just puked, sling an arm across you? 

Regardless, this exchange didn't go unnoticed by Hephaestus and Ares.

**I felt like someone – something – was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

The demigods shuddered.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. 'Percy?'**

"Told you, you were very dramatic." said Thalia.

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change colour in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few grey streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

Poseidon could sort of see now that why he had chosen her.

**'Oh, Percy.' She hugged me tight. 'I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!'**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of 'free samples', the way she always did when I came home.**

"Percy, care to introduce me t your mother some time?" asked Apollo.

 **We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in** **my letters.**

"That might take a while," said Grover.

**She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

Thalia couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. Guaranteed that Percy deserved all the good things he got, but a good dad _and_ a good mom. Wonder what that'd feel like.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

Hestia was smiling fondly at the mother-son relationship.

Hera said, "As it _should_ be."

Hephaestus snorted, "As I said, like _you_ know any better."

Hera scowled, "This boy is noble, brave and worthy. You weren't."

"Oh yeah? But he just said that mortalsperceived him as a troubled kid. Six schools in Six years Hera! And still his mom loved him! What about you!" said Hephaestus seemed very emotional and the sight made Aphrodite's heart melt. Suddenly she was standing beside Hephaestus, hand on his shoulder. 

Aphrodite's eyes were like chunks of ice. In a voice cold with fury she said, "You are the most awful person I ever met." Although she just said a sentence, it was like hell had frozen over.

"C'mon Hephaestus, let's get out of here," she said. Stunned Hephaestus followed her leaving the whole throne room silent. Who would've thought that the sickly sweet Aphrodite could be a badass?

**Next part coming out soon!**


	7. When Your Best Friend Unexpectedly Loses their Pants Part2

Everyone stared in wonder at the place where Aphrodite and Hephaestus had been just seconds ago. "Sh-she'll calm down," said Aries shakily. The throne room was silent and not even a breath could be heard.

Hera just sat at her throne stock-still. She wasn't that appalling was she? Surely, she had done what _had_ to be done. She had done that what was noble. 

Hermes cleared his throat, "Well, she'll be fine. Hephaestus is with her."

Nobody missed the scowl on Aries face when Hermes said this. He exclaimed, "Yeah and what good will that do? She hates him. She was forced to marry him. I know her, she'd want to be alone.

Hermes shook his head and continued. 

Ares really was blind.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, 'Hey, Sally – how about some bean dip, huh?'**

"He just had to destroy the mother-son moment," Hera gritted her teeth.

"I hope she poisons him," said Thalia.

**I gritted my teeth. My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Would a god do?" winked Apollo.

"A god would definitely do," said Poseidon, folding his arms behind his head and reclining on his throne.

Athena rolled her eyes.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really had. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofitt suddenly didn't seem sobad. Until that trip to the museum...**

"What's the bet he won't tell her about it," said Jason1

"My gladiator," said Jason.

But before someone else could join in, Hermes started reading. He hadn't heard about the bets, thankfully.

**'What?' my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. 'Did something scare you?'' No, Mom.' I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"Not as stupid as you normally do," said Annabeth. She and Grover were the only people (apart from Percy) who weren't truly worried, since they knew this all--mostly.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me. 'I have a surprise for you,' she said. 'We're going to the beach. 'My eyes widened. 'Montauk?'**

"I love that place!" said Poseidon.

Percy smiled, "Me too!"

**'Three nights – same cabin.' 'When?'She smiled. 'As soon as I get changed. 'I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"Such a hypocrite," said Hestia.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, 'Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?'**

"If I'd been in her place, I'd have poisoned the bean dip, added some foul contents in it, mixed it in a toilet seat bowl and smashed his face in it," said Artemis, drawing her arrow and bow in an extreme show of violence. She was panting hard and no one knew what to do. 

Then Nico spoke up, "Did you know, Poisoned and Poseidon have exactly the same letters just different arrangement of those letters and nearly the same sound? So it means, they are nearly the same."

Everyone looked at him weirdly.

"What?" he shrugged, "Just a fun fact."

Hermes continued. It was just like a typical Hades' son to think like that

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.'I was on my way, honey,' she told Gabe.**

Poseidon gritted his teeth, "How can she cal that----that THING honey?!?!"

"Oohh, jealous now, are we?" smirked Apollo.

Poseidon looked away.

**'We were just talking about the trip.'**

**Gabe's eyes got small. 'The trip? You mean you were serious about that?'**

Just at that moment Aphrodite came skipping in happily, followed by Hephaestus.

She sat on her throne and giggled, "This is such a nice day. What happened? In the book?" Stunned, Hermes told her all the stuff that had happened after she left. She giggled again, "The story's getting interesting!"

When Hephaestus sat down, Ares glared at him, "What did you do?"

Hephaestus looked away, "Nothing."

Before Ares could start his roaring, Hermes continued.

**'I knew it,' I muttered. 'He won't let us go.''Of course he will,' my mom said evenly. 'Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides,' she added, 'Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works.'Gabe softened a bit. 'So this money for your trip... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?''Yes, honey,' my mother said.'And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back.''We'll be very careful.'Gabe scratched his double chin. 'Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game.'**

"He _paid_ for it you shithead!" shouted Leo.

"Language," said Artemis, glaring. 

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"I'd help you," said Piper. She was really disgusted by Gabe.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"Because she wanted to protect you," said Athena softly.

Percy looked down. His mom had to suffer all that....because of him.

**'I'm sorry,' I muttered. 'I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now.'**

"Wow, even at twelve, you were really sarcastic," said Grover.

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.'Yeah, whatever,' he decided.**

"He is a pig," said Poseidon.

"Nah, that'll be an insult to the pigs," said Zeus.

**He went back to his game.'Thank you, Percy,' my mom said. 'Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about...whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?'**

"She. Is. Amazing," said Athena.

And everyone agreed.

Poseidon could fully see now why he had chosen her in the future. And he ws worried, about how attached he could get to _this_ mortal

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes – the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride – as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

"Does she know?" asked Athena from Poseidon

"Know what?" Poseidon asked.

"That you are an Olympian?"

"How could i know this? Ask the kids."

So Athena turned towards the demigods.

Percy said, "Yes, she is clear-sighted so she could see through mist, and so you told her."

"This is unacceptable!" Thundered Zeus.

"Dad, you told mum too, and she didn't have to be clear-sighted for you to tell her," said Thalia. She liked Sally and wasn't going to stand it if her dad did something stupid.

Zeus grumbled, but sat down. But it made him wonder. Why was _his_ child defending Poseidon's family? Surely, he was a good dad in future and even if he wasn't, it was his children's duty to side by him.

Zeus looked at Thalia again and started to think......

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.An hour later we were ready to leave.Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking – and more important, his '78 Camaro – for the whole weekend.'Not a scratch on this car, brain boy,' he warned me as I loaded the last bag. 'Not one littlescratch.'**

"Like he'd be the one driving. He was twelve," said Thalia.

Hermes grinned again.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

Annabeth opened her mouth, but Thalia stopped her, "Don't even say it. I know I think like Percy."

Hermes continued.

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me. Watching him lumber back towards the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement towards Gabe.**

"Nothing would happen," said Hercules.

**The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon.**

Everyone looked at Percy, who smiled, embarrassed. 

Everyone was too impressed for words. Then Zeus got up, lightening bolt in hand, and said, "This is unacceptable. No one should have any powers that only a god can have. And this time, you all don't have that your-kids-can-do-this-too excuse. We have to get rid of this boy."

There was silence. Then....Annabeth stepped forward, in front of Percy and snarled, "Over my grave!"

"I suppose it wouldn't cause a difference if another demigod died in the process," shrugged Zeus.

Athena threw a book _really hard_ at him and Zeus was knocked out of his throne, "You aren't laying a _finger_ on _my_ daughter, old man!"

This jerked Poseidon and the others into action too. The demigods all stood beside Percy and started shouting random things at Zeus, Poseidon grabbed his Trident and smashed it on Zeus' face. Aphrodite shrieked, "You aren't going to finish off a beautiful love story before it even starts!" Ares and surprisingly Hephaestus backed her up.

But before the situation could get worse, there was a huge thunderclap and immediately a force dragged all the gods back to their respective thrones. Suddenly, a voice spoke, "You were all told to not harm the demigods ! We'll let you go since technically you didn't ham a demigod, but next time we won't be so lenient."

Then immediately the voice stopped and everyone was left shaking.

"I'll deal with you later," said Zeus to Poseidon and Athena.

Then, Hermes continued.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

"Well, I never thought of it that way. It is the best place in the world for me," said Poseidon.

**I loved the place.**

"Like father like son," said Demeter wryly.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

Poseidon's eyes went wide. An Omen? He really hoped not. He didn't want to fall in love with a mortal and then have her and his heart, broken.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the colour of the sea. We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jellybeans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Yeah you should! Blue is NOT your colour!" said Zeus yet he didn't do anything, because he remembered what the fates had said. 

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop.**

Zeus grumbled, but didn't do anything else.

**This – along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs Ugliano – was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me. When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash.**

At this, Poseidon threw Zeus another dirty look.

**She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop. Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk – my father. Mom's eyes went all misty.**

Poseidon felt sorry for this mortal woman he had to leave, and for his future self for he ha no doubt now he loved this woman. Maybe as much as Amphitrite.

**I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them. 'He was kind, Percy,' she said. 'Tall, handsome and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes.'**

"Seems like at least someone thinks you are desirable, uncle P," said Apollo.

Poseidon should've been smug that such a brilliant woman liked him. Instead he was really really sad. It would've been good for both of them if she hadn't.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. 'I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud.'**

"Indeed," thought Poseidon.

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"A lot," said Poseidon, "There are alot of things that are great about you."

Percy beamed with happiness.

**'How old was I?' I asked. 'I mean... when he left?'She watched the flames. 'He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach.This cabin.' 'But... he knew me as a baby.' 'No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born.'I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"How can you remember something from when you were, like, seven months old?" asked Thalia.

Percy winked, "I'm an odd guy Thals."

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

Poseidon opened his mouth to say something, but Percy stopped him, "It' okay dad, I understand. I understand now."

**'Are you going to send me away again?' I asked her. 'To another boarding school?' She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.'I don't know, honey.' Her voice was heavy. 'I think... I think we'll have to do something.' 'Because you don't want me around?'**

"Percy!" both Annabeth and Poseidon shouted.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out. My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. 'Oh, Percy, no. I – I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away.'Her words reminded me of what Mr Brunner had said – that it was best for me to leave Yancy.'Because I'm not normal,' I said.'You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe.' 'Safe from what?'**

"Pretty much the whole damned world," said Frank.

Hazel gasped at him using the word "Damned" while the others just rolled their eyes at Hazel's behaviour.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me – all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget. During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"You send a Cyclopes after your own son! And then you attack me for sending a fury after him, you hypocrite!" Hades bellowed.

"Erm, dad, I'm pretty sure the Cyclopes was just there to protect him," said Nico.

"Oh," said Hades stupidly and he sat down.

**Before that – a really early memory. I was in pre school, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Just like Hercules," said Dionysus.

"Don't even compare me to him!" Percy shouted and Dionysus shut-up.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my maths teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"Percy," said Thalia, "You _are_ odd."

"No kidding," said Perseus.

**'I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could,' my mom said. 'They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy – the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it.'**

Hera was astonished, "This woman would live with that-that thing, but not leave her son?"

**'My father wanted me to go to a special school?''Not a school,' she said softly. 'A summer camp.'My head was spinning. Why would my dad – who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born – talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?'I'm sorry, Percy,' she said, seeing the look in my eyes. 'But I can't talk about it. I – I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying goodbye to you for good.''For good? But if it's only a summer camp...'She turned towards the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.That night I had a vivid dream.It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

"A pretty normal thing that goes on around here," said Hermes

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

"I'd say it was me, but this doesn't sound like me," said Hades.

"Yeah, that sounds like my poor little grand-father, but ofcourse it couldn't be him, since my dad, the hero, slashed him up and threw him into Tartarus," said Apollo.

Every Olympian paled.

"What?" asked Apollo idiotically.

"Is what my brother saying true?" Artemis asked Percy.

"He shook his head, "We can't tell you."

Hermes shakily continued, deciding they wouldn't get anything out of these kids.

Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other and a silent conversation passed between them. They silently promised that if it was their dad making them fight, then they'd _try_ not to fight. At least, not over something stupid like whom Mother Rhea liked best.

Their relationship was quite odd. It was clear they were mortal enemies, but they understood each other. Sometimes, whole conversations passed between them by just a look. If Poseidon hadn't spent all his time in Kronos' stomach, it was clear Zeus and him would've been those kinds of brothers who pulled devastatingly dangerous pranks off together. 

Nevertheless, They hadn't entirely sworn not to fight ever again, but this promise to at least _try,_ was one step to it.

These reading sessions were _really_ working out.

**I ran towards them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion.**

"Definitely father," whispered Hades, causing chills to run down the others' spines.

**I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

**I woke with a start.Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and five-metre-high waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

"You really are fighting like cats and dogs," said Artemis to Zeus and Poseidon.

"Who's the cat and who's the dog?" asked Apollo.

Artemis just rolled her eyes.

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, 'Hurricane.'I knew that was crazy. Long Island never saw hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten.**

"How could you forget that Uncle P?" asked Apollo mockingly.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end. Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice – someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"What do you mean, I wasn't exactly me?" asked Grover indignantly. 

"Read to find out," grimaced Percy, "And mind you, this was one of the biggest frights of my life."

**'Searching all night,' he gasped. 'What were you thinking?'My mother looked at me in terror – not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.'Percy,' she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. 'What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?'I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.'O Zeu kai alloi theoi!' he yelled.**

"Language!" snapped Hera.

**'It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?'**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood himperfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had got here by himself in the middle of the night.Because Grover didn't have his trousers on**

"Ewww," said Aphrodite, "Why?" 

**– and where his legs should be... where his legs should be...**

"Spit it out, you mumbling baboon!" shouted Ares.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before:'Percy. Tell me now!' I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, 'Get to the car. Both of you. Go!' Grover ran for the Camaro – but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Oohh, I'm shocked," said Ares mockingly.

"Ares! the kid was twelve and didn't know anything about this world!" Aphrodite looked at him scornfully.

Ares shut up shocked.

"Here Hermes, give that to me, I wanna read next," said Aphrodite, holding out her hands. Hermes silently handed her the book.

Call it a co-incident or an omen, I don't care. The only thing I care about is that Aphrodite, the love goddess, had suddenly volunteered to read the chapter that was the start of **" PERCABETH"**

**A/N: So my exams are starting and there is a lot of pressure of work on me. So for this whole month I'd be studying and giving my exams. So the next update would be after November. So sorry in advance for the wait, but it's exams, you know how that is.**


End file.
